Ready to go!

Well, apart from loading supplies, the dinghy, securing for sea etc. I had planned to do this later in the month but with dry and relatively warm weather forecast (that proved optimistic, it was darn cold at times) it was too good an opportunity to miss, and next week is out due to both cars going into the shop and a new washing machine to install.

This last winter has been hard on canvas, fortunately I took all

of the rest off of the boat for cleaning and reproofing before she

came out of the water in October.

After a mornings work cleaning and a lot more rigging etc..

The saloon tidier than it has been for a long time. The starboard

bunk back is in dry store as I don't need it sailing single handed

and this gives me a bit more room for convenient storage, with

the lea cloth in place.

More work on and off the boat.

 A short but productive visit to the boat last week, I was lucky with the weather which was much better than forecast and despite a brisk wind it was warm enough on both days to work outside without cold weather clothing, that was not going to last and I only stayed one night rather than the two I had planned but I only skipped a couple of jobs and did a couple of extra ones.

First on the agenda after arriving on Wednesday in the early afternoon, was getting the mainsail and stack pack rigged before the weather had a chance to intervene, that proved a lot easier now than when I last had the stack pack off with the canvas more flexible.

Next was sorting out the kedge anchors and the rest of the anchoring and mooring gear, probably not a good idea as my back is still suffering, the newly demoted Lewmar Delta kedge is now in it's new home and the 10m of 8mm chain I would have used with a kedge is off the boat now being too heavy for me to move around comfortably, it has been replaced by a 5m length with new shackles.

Then I patched the sprayhood back drop that had suffered from chafe during the winter storms and refitted the revarnished tiller with its new cover.

In the evening, whilst the rain came down, I had a go at tidying up the electrics, not a lot of work as I wasn't going to take it all to pieces, not super tidy but an improvement.

Refurbished bolt croppers.

Thursday morning, and I planned to sew some pre-prepared patches onto the front of the spray hood where my grab ropes rub, but easing the hood to do it I found a 2" tear in the canvas where it bears on the aft tube and a thin patch further out, so one prepared patch went on the first and a new, awkwardly shaped one went on the other. By now it was lunch time, my back was really bad so after checking the moisture traps I made a dash for home avoiding some nasty weather on Friday and the heavy traffic usual on a Friday afternoon.

As usual when I am on the boat I find more jobs to do, this time as well as the spray hood issue, when checking the tools in the heavy items locker I found the emergency bolt croppers rusted up, probably because, being too big for the tool bag, they were stored next to the kedge anchors that I have used occasionally to back up the bower and were probably wet when stowed. 

A new pair would only be about £12 but I don't like throwing away tools so I had it home, with difficulty got it to pieces, cleaned up and painted. A good 3 hours work but in retrospect I think it would be best to paint unpainted parts of a new one as a preventative measure so perhaps only a couple of hours net. I suspect Sir Robin would approve:

"Maybe I am getting dated but, when I first started sailing more than 50 years ago, if something broke we fixed it if it was at all possible. Buying new was a last resort as money was always scarce, but in any case we had been taught to take care of our tools, and it stood us in good stead. When you get halfway across an ocean and need to do an urgent repair, it is not the time to discover that the tools are rusted up and probably some are missing because they have not been put away properly. Try finding a chandlery in mid-ocean!"

Knox-Johnston, Robin. Knox-Johnston on Seamanship & Seafaring: Lessons & experiences from the 50 years since the start of his record breaking voyage (pp. 119-120). Fernhurst Books  

As an aside, the bolt croppers are a back up emergency tool in case of dismasting or similar, the primary tool is a battery powered angle grinder with cutting disks which would go through rigging, and spars, like butter. But it could be dangerous to use in a rough sea and it might not work after a ducking so I carry the croppers as well.

Only one long, perhaps three night, visit to the boat is now required before I go sailing, an hours work to secure the newly installed water tank, a couple more to clean and reproof the spray hood and then a lot of work to get all of the rigging re-rove and maintenance gear off the boat. Then I will be ready for Ireland, when the weather permits.

Engine work and more.

Fuel Filter Assembly.

Yanmar fuel filter assembly.

Scanning through the workshop manual for the engine I found that the thermostat has a life of 2,000 hours (it is not on the service schedule in the operations manual!) so it was due and quite possibly overdue for replacement. But first up was the rest of the service (started before lift out) and inspection, that all went fine until the thread on the bleed screw on the fuel filter gave up the ghost, it has always been problematical with a tendency to leak and now it would not seal with the normal copper washer and it was rather iffy without. I was unsure about how good the thread in the filter assembly was so rather than faff about finding the right bleed screw, with the entire assembly complete with a filter at £80 I opted for that.

Fitting was straight forward and I had previously invested in a large assorted pack of copper crush washers so there was no need to hunt down the right size.

Thermostat & hose replacement.

I had already replaced all of the hoses except the short piece to the thermostat that was probably original to the engine but I found a rub on the hose from the seacock to the water filter were it was too close to the engine sump being a little too long. With hose not costing that much I decided I might as well replace more and opted for a premium silicone at £10 per metre incl postage. Compared to rubber silicone hose is more resistant to high temperatures and some chemicals, is robust, more flexible and is smoother so that water can flow more easily.

Fuel filter top left, thermostat housing top centre between the two
pieces of red hose, the lower piece is the bypass hose. Water filter
left. Water pump bottom left.

It was a good job that I decided to change the thermostat because I found that the bypass hose and the outlet from the cylinder intake coupling was completely blocked with salt; had the thermostat ever been changed? It certainly had not been since the engine was resprayed after a "major service" in 2014. 

The thermostat from
"Parts4engines".

The engine is not going to overheat because of this, presumably with the bypass blocked the water pressure forces the thermostat open as on starting there was plenty of water coming out of the exhaust. Normally the thermostat does not start to restrict water through the bypass until the water in the outlet is 42°C vs a summer input temperature of 8 - 15°C  and it  should be fully open with the water temperature at 52°C  at which point it completely blocks the bypass to force all of the cooling water through the block and cylinder head.

So with the bypass blocked, the engine would be very slow to warm up, and probably for an extended period would have been running even cooler than normal for a raw water cooled engine that already runs cool compared to the heat exchanger equipped fresh water cooled version. 

Wednesday 21st.

A new bag for the throw bag, the bean bag weight and line, minus
a couple of feet that has been exposed to the sun, reused.

A cover for the tiller to preserve the rather good varnish finish.
Only try this using hand stitching if you have a lot of spare time!

I think I have finished all of the winter work except a bit of painting and a couple of small jobs down below that I'll do in a month or so when I'll need to go to the boat to replenish the condensation traps, to do some cleaning and take some heavy gear down. Then it will be 2 or 3 days to re reave the running rigging and put the sails on and I'll be ready to head to Ireland.

Continuing winter work & a new anchor.

Monday 12th January

A quick trip to the boat over the last 3 days, shorter than planned as, after the gales, I found some stitching broken on the spray hood, it was tipping down and blowing a gale so I'll be down again as soon as there is some dry, hopefully warmer weather to fix that and carry on with other work. But I did get some things done mainly continuing work on the engine, post to follow when finished, some tidying up and replacing the bower anchor. 

Whilst I have generally been satisfied with the "high" holding power Delta anchor I have now had two very nasty instances of it giving way, the first in the Pembroke River was almost certainly down to pulling through a mound of newly displaced mud or through into a newly dredged hollow.

The second, in 2025, however was more unsettling, true it was in fairly extreme conditions but the holding was at least reasonable and the anchor failed after earlier holding in more wind, probably down to excessive yawing and a falling tide but I would have hoped for the anchor to cope. 

I have also had a few occasions when I could not get the Delta to set, most notably at Loch Mariveg, Isle of Lewis in May 2025 when I tried 8 times to anchor in several areas and still failed.

This year I am planning to cruise the west coast of Ireland were there are fewer marinas and potentially strong winds coming in from the Atlantic, so I decided to replace the Delta with a more modern and much more expensive (almost 3 times the price) "super high" holding power 9Kg Rocna "Vulcan". That was quickly installed once I had found some suitable load tested "Titan" shackles and the seizing wire. The original 24 Lb CQR is now ashore for good and the Delta is relegated to #1 kedge.  

Whilst the majority of the Delta is in good shape there is a disappointing
amount of rust on it, perhaps not that surprising having been in the anchor
locker for c 20k miles and in use for 350 nights and a few lunch breaks.
Note that the swivel should be attached via a shackle but I robbed that
for the Rocna which they say should not need a swivel, just back to
back shackles.

It is being cleaned with "brick" cleaner (acid) to remove a lot of crud and
will then be treated with "Fertran" before being painted and returned
to the boat.

Done, just need to seize the first shackle when it gets to the boat.

Saturday 27th December

It is rather more comfortable working at home, but annoying when you realise that you need something that is on the boat 200 miles away, this time the sail makers kit I need to make a cover for the newly varnished tiller and to remake the throw bag that, like the emergency ladders, has suffered from UV and is starting to fall to pieces; planned obsolescence I suspect, straight forward canvas would last longer, the current one is the second I have bought and about 4 years old. Still there should be plenty of time to make those after my next visit to Milford which will be as soon as we get a warm spell.

I am fitting a remote card reader for the plotter to save removing the cover to get at the cards - I could not get the current Garmin Navionics chart to transfer from the iPad in one go but it was quick and straight forward to write it to the SD card using Garmin Express. The reader was too long to fit so I had to put deeper side pieces on the cover and revarnish. 

Fitted. The holder on the left is for the hand held VHF. Also shown, the emergency
knife, EPIRB mount, strobe and head light, all within easy reach of the cockpit.

Some repainting of engine bits in process, about 3 days more
 for the air filter cover and one or two for the water pump.

Sunday

Getting there.

Tuesday

All done, now waiting for sensible weather to get to the boat.

Trying to get the boat back in the water.

Sancerre was scheduled to launch last Friday, the 5th, but strong winds and heavy rain prevented that. Probably not a bad thing as the very wet weather meant the anti-fouling was behind schedule. The launch was rescheduled for the following Tuesday the 9th.

I put a coat of anti-foul on the skeg, rudder and leading edges shortly after
coming ashore as these get more wear and needs 3 coats. The first full coat of blue was
done on 3rd December after weeks of rain, there was a real risk of not getting the 2nd full
coat on before the scheduled relaunch but that has was put back from Friday 5th until
Tuesday 9th because of yet more bad weather on the way.

Windjammer Marine got the last of the blue done in a short window on Friday and did the boot line today (Monday).
 

Pics by Windjammer Marine

I was due to go down Monday to fit the new anodes, get the newly marked anchor chain back on board and do a few other chores to get ready for launch, then on Sunday came the weather forecast for Tuesday; 30 knots of wind gusting to more than 50 knots and 60 knots possible. Update: I understand it was gusting 56 knots through the boatyard causing some damage on other boats.

There was no point in going down for that so I cancelled the hotel booking and today we have rescheduled the launch for Monday the 22nd December, hopefully there will be sufficient water as the spring tide is low at 6.6m which is marginal. 

Tuesday

A good decision, 30 knots of wind gusting 49 reported at 09:00
and forecast to be similar or more throughout the morning,
it peaked with gusts of 53 knots (61 mph).

Sunday 14th.

With all of the flooding in the area and amber warnings for rain this coming week, there will be lots of freshwater coming down the pill which will keep water levels in the dock above normal levels which helps albeit with brackish waters that will increase the draft a little. It is a long way out, but the ECMWF is showing a brisk north easterly for Monday week and I could get wet, not ideal but manageable. Fingers crossed!

No "proper" boat work to do at home so back to models.

Thursday 18th.

Hopefully I'll get the boat in on Monday, the wind is now forecast to be c 10 knots on Sunday and Monday, the ecmwf and UK gobal models show that increasing to 20 knots gusting 30 on Tuesday afternoon, hopefully that will not come in earlier, or the UK domestic model is correct showing no increase through Wednesday.

Sunday 21st.

Anodes changed and shaft primed for antifoul where left bare by slightly
shorter Aluminium Anodes. Also a coat of silicone on the propeller.
Various other jobs done and ready for launch!

Monday 22nd.

For some reason I had been scheduled for the second launch but that was quickly changed by the boss man who was doing the launches as the large motor boat also to be launched, drew significantly less than Sancerre. The boat was put into the slings in the twilight, antifoul quickly put on the areas previously covered by props and we were in the water by about 09:00.

The rush to get me in was not because of  lack of water but too much due to all of the rain, they wanted me in early so they could start letting water out through the lock to avoid flooding further up what used to be the pill before it was built over.  A "Pill" is the name, mainly used in S Wales and Cornwall, for a creek or shallow tributary to an estuary, usually largely drying at low water.

It was a tad windy up the chuff getting onto the berth but manageable single handed and I got a line round the end cleat on the end of the pontoon finger first try despite the fender which gets in the way. It was a little fortunate as half an hour after it was blowing well over 20 knots, at that I would have gone onto a spare berth heading into wind and waited, the marina staff probably not being available to help as they were doing the next launch.

I had got a lot done by lunch time and I had rather over done it the previous day and was rather achy so decided not to stay the night for some fairly arduous work on Tuesday and after a good trip back was home before five.

Refurbishing a Seagull outboard - Part 2.

After part 1. 

As  described in Part 1 I did a lot of restoration work on my 1976 vintage Seagull 40+ last winter, unfortunately the fuel tap leak that I had thought cured hadn't been, when I came to fill it up to take it on this years cruise the fuel that I had left in it had disappeared and replacement fuel gushed out. The cork had shrunk again and there was no time to replace it so the Mariner came with me, but was not used as I was able to row ashore on the odd occasion I used the dinghy.

I have now embarked on a second phase of restoration including:

• Fuel tap cork replaced, tap polished and lacquered.
• Exhaust polished, more cleaning and paint to touch up.
• The bronze mounting bracket had started to go green, even in the garage, so cleaned and will be lacquered as soon as the humidity drops.
• The tiller is being replaced: Mine had been broken at some point and been replaced with a piece of copper water pipe which had been poorly painted and had some dings in it. At only £5 from  Saving old Seagulls a replacement was a better bet than filling or removing dents and repainting.

The bronze mounting bracket cleaned and lacquered. The main body has trunnions that fit in the cups on the inside of the top edge and is secured to it with a stainless rod going through them. The piece bottom right supports the drive shaft housing and provides adjustment for the rake of the transom. A few original nuts were replaced with new phosphor bronze that are still available in BSF sizes (and in Whitworth which is useful for locking nuts on Blake's seacocks, I had a couple missing).

The repaired tiller arm stripped of paint.

The "new" tiller, goodness knows where this had been stored.

Cleaned up with a NOS throttle lever. The tiller is rather shiny now
but should get a dull patina as it ages which will help to hide the
remaining marks. 

Almost done, I just need to fit some split pins, polish up
the exhaust and, when the laquear has hardened, refit the
mounting bracket and I'm finished.  Probably.

The tiller should end up the same colour as the crank case which
is not painted.

Friday 21 November - Finished!

Laying up - Canvas Work - Part 2

Saturday 4th

One bag finished for the emergency ladders, I made them a little thicker and considerably longer to help with packing and to reduce the pressure on the longer strip of velcro closure but they are a tad shallower so hopefully will  not be bashed about quite as much by the waves. A lot of work, about a day, to save c £85 (allowing for materials), the next one should not take quite as long now I am getting more adept at the stitching and I have a design. Friday 10th: The second one (top) actually took about the same time but is rather neater.

Outside.

Hull side.

Inside

Monday 6th

Two patches made ready for the spray hood and three patches completed on Blue Performance halyard bags, I don't recommend these - various small bits (one shown top right, the shock cord was originally covered)  fell to bits after a couple of years due to not being UV resistant, the two I have left are not in direct sunlight. but still suffered. The bag on the mast was more exposed and had more susceptible bits (I notice that F4 have stopped selling those) and was thrown away after just two seasons. They also fade quickly, not good on bags costing £60 and above.

Tuesday 28th

Now I have started the amount of canvas work is growing:

• Cover for the SeaFeather Servo Blade. Removing the blade requires the dinghy, not a problem when on a mooring but a pain when bows in on a pontoon.
• A double halyard bag for the mast (in process), the two off the peg bags on the mast are OK but not ideal so they are going to be reused around the cockpit, replacing one that is beyond cleaning and repair.
• Cover for the tiller that hopefully will reduce the number of times it needs re-varnishing.

I suspect there will be one or two more projects that will occur to me.

Sunday 2nd November

The double Halyard bag for the mast is finally finished, an awful lot of work hand stitching!

The flash makes them look light, it is actually the same material
as the servo blade cover above and a reasonable match with
the stack pack.

They are a lot deeper than the ones being replaced which were
a little bit small for the spinnaker halyard when the sail was set.
Hopefully the large covers with Velcro fastening fastening will
keep more of the rain out than the current ones but there are
drain holes for what does get in.

Laying Up - Ashore

With awful weather predicted for Monday I went to the boat on Sunday afternoon to do some work before the haul out on Wednesday, that worked out well as I got some useful odds and ends done on Sunday, then on Monday I installed a new water tank - the water was starting to smell, even with purification tabs, sterilisation back in March and a filter. 

I had also decided that the boat was trimmed too far down in the stern due to:

• Moving the water tank with 40 - 50 Kilos of water aft when I replaced the fuel tank.
• The larger steel fuel tank replacing a bladder plus a couple of cans of spare, put 100 Litres of fuel totalling c 120 Kg, with tank, a long way aft.
• Carrying the dingy on the roof rather than forward.
• Stowing my two long and heavy ropes (80m of 14mm & 100 or 12mm) in the quarter berth.

So using the original deck fitting the new bladder tank is in the forepeak with the on-demand electric pump back under a saloon berth which frees up a little room in the under sink locker. The ropes are also now in the forepeak leaving more room for the heavy weather and storm jibs in the quarter berth and giving better access to all. They can easily be moved back if necessary.

Tuesday saw a lot of odd jobs done and Sancerre was hauled out at 09:00 on Wednesday with essentially no wind it was very straightforward, unlike last year when I had >20 knots of wind blowing me into the hoist requiring the engine to be running astern for at least the last hundred yards which makes steering tricky with the prop walk.

 

On Tuesday it was me queuing behind the previous

boat to be lifted.

Spot Sancerre (click to expand, answer below).
Link to live cam (with adverts)

I was very pleased with the state of the hull, the change of location and anti-foul has made a big difference, she looks dirty but it was mainly slime with no weed or Barnacles on the main part of the hull. There was a good crop of Barnacles and small limpets in a couple of places where there was little or no anti-foul such as on the shaft where a anode had come off, the underneath of the keel and rudder and on the rope cutter. The prop was also good and was cleaned of growth from the last few months with a gentle wipe with a cloth and the "Pellerclean" has been on since July 2023. 

The clean spots are where the sling slipped
forward before being stopped by the safety lines.
This is a common issue with boats like the A9m,
Contessa 32, etc. with a sloping profile from
the forefoot to keel. It can be an expensive mistake
to omit the safety rope! Make sure the operators
knows it is required.

This may look dirty but it is nothing compared to previous years.
The bag over the propeller is to protect the "Pellerclean" anti-
foul coating from errant sprays from the power washer.

Mullet have been grazing on the rudder. The port side is dirtier
than the starboard side due to the right handed propeller and
being moored starboard side too keeping the sun off that side.

It cleaned up very well (pics if I remember next time down) and the question now is 2 or 3 coats of anti-foul? At £109.95 per 2.5 litres (RRP £157.68) one does not want to be profligate with it! Nor do I want to built up a thick coat of anti-foul which at some point might then need striping. Decision: I’m going for two coats generally but three on the skeg, rudder and three or four on leading edges.

The next visit will hopefully include re-marking the anchor chain and removing the last link that is a bit rusty due to contact with the stainless anchor swivel, prep work for anti-foul, cleaning the top sides, refitting the anchor locker cover removed for painting, refitting the removable parts of the Blakes sea cocks after cleaning, some anti-fouling and more. Work is never ending on a boat!

 

Sancerre is on the 2nd row in, by the road. Second left from
the wide footpath across the yard.